From: Reason (reason@exratio.com)
Date: Mon Mar 31 2003 - 22:30:53 MST
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-extropians@extropy.org
> [mailto:owner-extropians@extropy.org]On Behalf Of Mike Lorrey
>
> Money being a representation of human labor, and the average human life
> being worth about $6.5 million, according to insurance actuaries (don't
> know if this applies only to Americans or not), if the post-war economy
> expands by $6.5 trillion more than it would have otherwise without
> cheap oil, then that is worth 1,000,000 lives lost in this war for a
> break even. If only 100,000 lives are lost, that is a 1000% return on
> investment. If Iraqi lives are worth half that, economically, then it
> is a 2000% ROI.
Hold hard here, though. We know things that the insurance actuaries don't;
singularities, immortality, transcendence to higher forms of mind, etc. At
least some of these human lives are actually worth a (probably countable)
infinity of dollars. Therefore no death is justified from this perspective.
(Discounting the other perspectives for a moment).
Reason
http://www.exratio.com/
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